Drabble Collection
by rhead-a-holyc
Summary: For all those challenge drabbles that don't quite make it to a one shot. Various characters and pairings.
1. Celebration Comes Later

**_Disclaimer:_**** I do not own Harry Potter**

**Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry Challenge [History of Magic] – week; country; analysis; thought**

**_Celebration Comes Later_**

He could not forget the utter shock and horror he had felt when he had seen Fred engulfed by that green light. Fred had still worn that mischievous grin even in death. He had only just apologized to Fred for his behavior over the previous year.

It was cruel of fate to take him away so soon after getting him back. It made him regret his actions and supporting the Ministry even more because of all the wasted time. He often thought back to those few seconds and replayed it over and over in his mind, analyzing every possibility that he could have perhaps managed to save Fred's life with occasionally wishing he had taken the curse for Fred.

It was a week since the final battle and the death of the Dark Lord. Most of the witches and wizards in the country were celebrating their freedom from the Dark Lord's reign.

They were not though, how could they? They had lost one of their family, even Harry, the person everyone was celebrating over, could not bring himself to wholeheartedly celebrate with the rest of the wizarding world. Everyone who had fought had been affected by the last battle, maybe one day they could and would celebrate but not today.


	2. Expectations

**_Disclaimer:_**** I do not own Harry Potter**

**Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry Challenge [Defense Against the Dark Arts] – paper; environment; truth; writing; article; department; goal**

**_Expectations_**

He had always been laughed at all through his years at Hogwarts. He was a Ravenclaw, he had always relied on his books for whatever he needed to know because the people who wrote the books obviously knew what they were talking about and had experience. Why should he risk himself in a risky environment just to test how a specific spell worked on some dangerous animal? The evidence was usually on paper so he had no need for such stupidity. That was left to the foolish Gryffindors.

He was one of the people who did the writing based on whatever the foolish person who wanted to test the theory. That was his department, his freedom was within the thick tombs and stacks of parchment that held truth within them.

That had been until he had gotten tired of the constant mocking he experienced from his peers and even from people who had never met him before and had only heard of him. He had left his teaching post at Hogwarts for a year, his excuse being that he wanted more practical experience in study.

His real goal though had been to find the Dark Lord. There had been rumours of his spirit wandering around the forests of Albania and so that has been where he had started his search. When he found the Dark Lord, he would never be mocked or teased again because the Dark Lord would give him power beyond that of the other weak witches and wizards that were his peers.

He had never expected what had truly come to pass.


	3. Foolishness

**_Disclaimer:_**** I do not own Harry Potter**

**Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry Challenge [Care of Magical Creatures] – storage; version; alcohol; argument; complaint; contract**

**_Foolishness_**

They never knew what had made the wizards agree that it would be a good idea to have the younger witches and wizards invade their lake for some competition or the other. The lake was dangerous, there was another deeper but less dangerous lake just a couple of miles outside Hogwarts that they could use.

They had only agreed to host the wizards after some arguments. There were still quite a few of the mer who had complaints about being forced to host the wizards. They never really had a choice especially with that newer contract the wizard government had forced them to agree to, they did not have anywhere else they could move to because each mer population had their own territories and Hogwarts had been their territories ever since the great Titanus had won it from Greamlin before Hogwarts had been founded.

There were quite a few of the mer who had decided not to help and had chosen to remain in the communal place where they made alcohol, or well their version of the strong liquid. He doubted they would have a lot left in storage after today.

He had to present though as the Chieftain of the tribe. He wished he did not have to meet that foolish old wizard afterwards as was arranged, but that had been the agreement.


	4. Freedom

**_Disclaimer:_**** I do not own Harry Potter**

**Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry Challenge [Transfiguration] – history; art; money; information; map; family; health; year; music; person; reading**

**Candy Land Challenge**

**_Freedom_**

It was the only way he felt free, the only way he could relax. Barely anyone even knew that it was him when he turned into the shaggy black grim-like dog and left Grimmuld Place.

He had felt a slight sense of guilt in the beginning when he had first begun venturing out of the Black ancestral home in his animagus form but he soon realized that Regulus was like his parents and every other Black before them. Regulus _enjoyed_ studying art, he _enjoyed_ listening to music and reading. Somehow some gene that had led to everyone else in his family liking the boring things had somehow managed to skip him.

He could not possibly understand how his family, no actually, how most purebloods in general could continue doing exactly the same thing every single year and not get tired of it. They found amusement in the most boring things.

They were rich anyway, they should be able to get other people to do all the boring stuff for them yet they did it themselves. Merlin only knew what doing such boring things did to a person's health. He knew that he would go mental if he learned whatever politics and history his parents had always told him to learn, "important information" they called it.

He snorted, or snorted as much as he could in his animagus form as he wandered through the streets of muggle London. No one suspected a thing _and_ he could not even get lost, he could just sniff his way back to his room when he needed to and make some excuse if someone had come into his room and found him not there. No one had ever caught him before neither would anyone catch him in the future, they would never think something like this possible from him anyway. It is kind of fun to do the impossible, or what someone else thought was impossible for you anyway.

Hmmm, he should thing about making a Marauders Map for Grimmuld Place. It would make everything so much easier. Or maybe he could learn one of those spells that would make it look like he was in his room even when he was not. The Black Library probably had something like that somewhere.


	5. Misunderstood Importance

**_Disclaimer:_**** I do not own Harry Potter**

**Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry Challenge [Study of Ancient Runes] – scene; concept; death; discussion; housing; advice; blood**

**_Misunderstood Importance_**

Hogwarts was old, older than anyone alive today. Her only constant companion through the years, the _decades_, had been the Sorting Hat and she had been around for longer than he had too.

The Founders and their immediate children and grandchildren had been the only ones that had conversed and discussed with her what went on within the school. As the years passed that ability had been lost to the many headmasters and headmistresses as they came and passed from her halls, they had all believed her unable to give advice on any situation that seemed to face them.

The concept of her being sentient was not something that surprised them, however, the concept of her being able to speak seemed unthinkable to them. She had seen everything that had passed through her walls and remembered everything, all the blood spilt, all the death meted out, all the laughter, all the joy, each and every little and seemingly insignificant scene that had ever taken place was known to her.

She wished that the headmasters and headmistresses realized at some point that she was not just another form of intelligent housing that had been spelled by magic to be able to only vaguely sense them and remain unable to think for herself like those other schools she had heard of in Europe.

There had been rumours of magic being collected every time those buildings had been built but it was never the right sort of magic or if it was, not powerful enough to create anything remotely as sentient as she was.


	6. Not As It Seems

**_Disclaimer:_**** I do not own Harry Potter**

**Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry Challenge [Astronomy] – combination; meaning; energy; road; location**

**_Not As It Seems_**

A strange energy had seemed to fill him upon making his decision before he had fallen asleep the night previous. It was a strange combination between determination and fear that prompted him to keep going until he saw the smart brown-haired girl. She was in the library surrounded by about a dozen different books again, he should have guessed. It was not particularly strange location for her to be there from what he had heard of Hermione Granger.

Hermione Granger, a muggleborn witch, a Gryffindor with so many Ravenclaw qualities many people were shocked that she had not been Sorted into Ravenclaw, or so he had heard.

Oh he knew of the irony of the entire situation with his school not accepting muggleborns but he could not help it. It was some kind of mixture between her studious nature and the determination that shone in her eyes as she faced adversary. He did not know where this attraction would lead, which road he would walk after asking Hermione to the Yule Ball as he intended to.

He was sure she had noticed him watching her. When their eyes had locked before the Goblet of Fire, he had known that there was no stopping this attraction that he felt.

Somehow he was nervous as he walked closer to the Gryffindor. He had never done something like this before, sure there had been girls that had asked him before but he had never felt the need to ask someone else before.

The slightly questioning glance of the Gryffindor as she glanced up upon noticing the shadow on the book she was currently poring over paused him for a moment before he soldiered on.

"WouldyoulliketogototheYuleBallwithme?" he blurted out quickly before realizing that his words were probably unintelligible so he took a deep breath and repeated himself slowly. He held his breath as she tilted her head to a side as she considered him, blushing slightly.

He could almost see the thoughts that raced through the Gryffindor's head, thinking of every consequence of her answer before she slowly and hesitantly nodded.

He felt like he could start flying without his firebolt at that point.


	7. Settling Down

**_Disclaimer: _****I do not own Harry Potter**

**Hogwarts School Of Witchcraft and Wizardry Challenge [Herbology] – success; politics; student; entertainment; office; population**

**_Settling Down_**

The war had changed him. The war had changed everyone who had lived through it either directly or indirectly. The war had made everything both more difficult and also a lot easier.

Their success had been littered by failures, losses through the years not to mention the brief period of complete torture the year preceding the end of the war. Even as the entire population had become to heal there were still politics and the entire process of rebuilding that had to take place to get everything to vaguely the point it had been before it not better.

It had taken some time for them to finally settle down and stop being as jumpy towards everything as they had been during the war. It was difficult and they could never quite get rid of the instinct that they had learned the hard way through the years.

Neville had finally settled down as a Professor at Hogwarts. Teaching had somehow made a lasting impact on him and he was determined to be a similar influence on the newer students that attended Hogwarts in the future in an attempt to never allow another Dark Lord to grow within the walls of Hogwarts for as long as he was teaching there.

Neville could not argue against the amusement he held toward the students though as they remained in awe of the 'war heroes' who had remained at Hogwarts to teach the new generations. It was also admittedly odd seeing students that reminded him of both himself and some of his past year mates.

Neville had ended up as the Herbology Professor as had been expected by everyone, but everyone had congratulated him nonetheless. His office was close to the newly resurrected Greenhouses that were both a lot bigger and were basically planned a lot better than the last ones had been, especially when one of the greenhouses had been built near the shade for the plants that liked the light less than the others.


	8. Skills Not Possessed

**_Disclaimer:_**** I do not own Harry Potter**

**Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry Challenge [Arithmacy] – reality; situation; skill; recipe**

**_Skills Not Possessed_**

Ron could not truly decide whether he hated the subject or the teacher worse.

Potions on its own was horrible, he knew because both his parents had tried to teach him to brew the year before Hogwarts as they had with everyone else in their family and that had failed spectacularly.

Snape just made everything worse with his comments and his ominous presence. Snape seemed to hate Gryffindor above that and only taunted and teased most of the Gryffindors for their horrible potions. That could also be the reason his mother never let him anywhere near the stove while she was cooking, especially when there were precise recipes to follow.

Ron knew he was horrible at Potions, he _really_ did not need someone else to point it out to him. Both Ron's parents had only sighed and shook their heads at every new exploded cauldron and banished the entire mixture, pewter and all, to some place where he never saw it again. They had not given up for a while afterwards though.

Potions was a skill he apparently did not possess, one of many skills he did not possess. Of course, sitting next to Hermione made nothing better in any situation because Hermione _always_ knew what she was doing. It just made everything worse in reality because when Ravenclaws ran out of the classroom in tears after having Hermione talk to them in any subject, Ron just _knew_ it was bad.


	9. Understanding Charms

**_Disclaimer:_**** I do not own Harry Potter**

**Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry Challenge [Charms] – method; understanding; theory; law; problem; control; knowledge; power; science; library**

**_Understanding Charms_**

Charms had always been Lily's strongest subject. Somehow the mix between outright transfiguration and practical Defense Against the Dark Arts was where she stood.

It really was extremely easy to do well in Charms. One simply needed to _understand_ the theory and not just _know_ it. The theory gave understanding of what you needed your magic to do. It required a fair amount of control not to overpower the charm but enough power not to underestimate the amount of magic needed. Even the library was limited in teaching control, it could instruct and give you the laws behind the concept but it could not teach you.

It was in some ways even similar to Potions, everything done had to be exact or the charm would most definitely go wrong. The only real difference between the two is that for Potions the ingredients can be changed and tested to work best, in Charms you only had two ingredients: your magic and your technique, only one could be changed and that change could affect the entire spell.

It was not easy though, even Lily had to practice and come to an understanding about each of the concepts before even attempting any charm. The only problem came in when Lily was expected to know how to do every single charm every single time _that_ had required a vast knowledge on the general principles of charms as well as a method to find which principle applied to that particular charm.


	10. The Annual Rant

**_Disclaimer:_**** I do not own Harry Potter**

**Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry Challenge [Exam] – FredGeorge; Firewhisky; Molly Weasley I; Family; Accio; When I was your age; Jam; Nobody**

"You know, when I was your age ..."

The Weasley siblings sighed as their mother went on one of her annual rants of the days when she was younger. Soon the old photo book would join their mother on her lap.

"Accio photo book."

The Weasley Twins eyes caught each other and they rolled their eyes. There were so many interesting things they could be doing right now, like putting that plastic spider their father had brought home under Ronnikin's pillow or the jam they intended to replace Ginny's shampoo with, they could even finish planning how they could spell Percy's hair blue. Bill and Charlie were never any fun to prank because they usually took whichever pranks they had fallen victim to in their stride like the time Charlie and walked around with green hair for a day until they had begun to feel very bad about it and changed his hair back.

Their father had summoned the Firewhisky and had been pouring their mother little bits of Firewhisky in her tea for the past hour. That too was a annual event, their father's only subtle effort to reduce the time before their mother actually fell asleep.

Nobody ever told her to stop talking though. They all still remembered the first time they had tried that. Their mother had given them the speech of the lifetime when they had done that. It had been something about how the new generation of children were so uncontrolled and unappreciative of what they had. She had then proceeded to give them a long winding example of how children had behaved when she was younger.

Fred and George glanced at each other again as their mother's words finally slowed and she became noticeable drowsy. It was a perfect opportunity for them to put that plastic snake in the cutlery drawer.


	11. Loyalty

**_Disclaimer:_**** I do not own Harry Potter**

**Demi Lovato Songs Category Challenge – Made in the USA**

**_Loyalty_**

Severus Snape was a man who had been fighting on both sides of the war at some point of his life. He knew both the horrors of the Dark Lord's deeds and insanity. He had also experienced the naiveté of the seemingly omnipotent Albus Dumbledore.

If he were to be true to himself, he was loyal to neither sides of the war. He had taken off those perfect rose-tinted glasses years ago, when he had first had to face the news of the death of his best friend and only crush.

Loyalty within a war was foolish, one had to adapt in order to survive. Loyalty meant stagnation, stagnation meant death in perilous times.

As much as he would hate to even possess the thought, he was strangely thankful for the Marauder's childish taunts. The foolish Gryffindors had only served to thicken his skin against word, helping him become a better spy during the crucial war.

There were only slim chances of him living past this war. Despite him regaining the Dark Lord's trust by killing Albus Dumbledore, distrust still lingered within the Dark Lord of his true motives. Had he never asked for the Dark Lord to save Lily Potter all those years ago, there would have been no mistrust of any sort from the Dark Lord.

He had only ever been loyal to one person and even to this day he remained loyal to her although only her memory remained. Lily Potter had given her precious life for that of her son, he could only continue her wish on keeping the brat safe as difficult as the foolish Gryffindor made it.

He had maintained his distance from the Potter spawn but had also taught the boy exactly what the Marauders had taught him years ago. The boy had grown a thicker skin as well as a quicker insult time that had thrown the Dark Lord off a couple of times, or so he had gleaned from Lucius's many rants over the boy escaping the Dark Lord over and over again.

As he had seen Albus Dumbledore fall by his own hand, he had known he would fall by the Dark Lord's hand. He had known that from the very first time Dumbledore had made his request. That had never helped him, nor deterred his mind from the one duty he held true in his mind. His only loyalty.

_Protect Harry._


	12. Personal Horror

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. **

**Collect Them All Challenge [Cho Chang] **

_**Personal Horror** _

It was one of the calmer days of July, where the weather was good and the sun was shining brightly. Everyone was lazing around. It was as if the entire war had never occurred at all. It almost seemed like the people absent were merely busy with something or the other, like Cedric was just off doing a couple of things for his parents and Andromeda was taking care of Teddy because Remus and Tonks had decided to spend the day together.

The thought of them actually being dead was almost abnormal on a day that was as fair as this one. The knowledge of the truth still clung to the back of her mind but it was not an idea she wished to think about rather often. It was close to a pained memory she wished to suppress. A bad dream meant to be cast aside upon waking, unwanted and unnecessary, but the thought had already crossed her mind. The truth had already replaced the beautiful lie the weather had wrought.

She closed her eyes as the memories of the war flickered beneath her eyelids like an old record, a horror movie she was forced to watch on repeat at various times of the day. She remembered the horror , pain and anguish she had felt. She remembered watching as the walls of Hogwarts crumbled under the force of magic. It had been a horrible experience, one she had no desire to relive yet her mind believed otherwise. She relived it whenever her mind was given even the slightest opportunity to do so.

It astonished her now how everyone was able to be relaxed enough to play Gobstones on the grass where only months ago they battled for their lives. Did they not remember all the people they had lost to be able to laugh as they did? Had thoughts of why they had been able to survive when so many others had not ever crossed their mind?

Surely such thoughts had crossed their minds just as they were crossing her mind now, at odd moments when they found themselves unable to defend against their own mind, the moments when their guards were down just a little bit. They did not share it though, everyone kept their horrors to themselves not wanting to ruin the fragile peace they held onto.


	13. It Goes On

**_Disclaimer:_**** I do not own Harry Potter.**

**Collect Them All Challenge [Bloody Baron]**  
**Inspiration: In three words I can sum up everything I have learned about life: it goes on. -Robert Frost**

**_It Goes On_**

He had lived, no _existed_ for at least a hundred years for wandering around as a bodyless ghost was definitely not living. Each second of all those years passed at the speed of a snail, crawling on broken legs, as the future edged ever so closer with it hopefully the reason for his continued haunting of his old home.

It was not that bad though. He was the ghost of his old house, Slytherin, and it was somewhat interesting watching each new year of Slytherins bring something different to Hogwarts, for each and every year did exactly that. Despite them all having similar characteristics none of them had been the same as any other, not even the heirs of the blood lines had been the same. Each generation had new ideas, new possibilities and new ambitions that were most unlike their predecessors despite some of them wanting to be exactly like their parents. They never would be, but no one told them that.

Even on the days sadness enveloped him for a past that had long passed, that barely anyone remembered, the sadness was unable to affect anyone other than himself. No one knew, no one cared, it was almost as if he was occasionally on that abandoned island with no one that could possibly reach him. Maybe it was because no one had ever tried, or because there was only one person he would ever allow to reach him and that person hated him.

His inner turmoil never affected his surroundings. Everyone around him continued with their lives, nothing was wrong in their lives after all. It was only his life that had stopped.

Nothing had stopped. Nothing would ever stop just for one person.


End file.
